Why Art Matters

Northwest Arkansas has become a destination for art enthusiasts worldwide since Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art opened its doors on 11/11/11. In less than two years, the museum has welcomed more than one million visitors and afforded residents of NWA – including schoolchildren – the opportunity to experience world-class art in our own backyard.

The museum's president, Don Bacigalupi, recently blogged about the cultural enrichment opportunities that Crystal Bridges offers to local students.

(This post originally appeared on Huffingtonpost.com and is reprinted with permission from Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. Photos provided by Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art; Stephen Ironside, photographer.)

Art is Good for You. Spread the Word.

Don Bacigalupi, PresidentCrystal Bridges Museum of American Art

More than 28,000 schoolchildren from all around the region have toured Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, since it opened less than two years ago. Schoolchildren are able to take a field trip to the museum at no cost, thanks to a generous endowment from the Willard and Pat Walker Charitable Foundation, which reimburses schools for out-of-pocket expenses such as buses and substitute teachers, and even provides a healthy lunch for all participants.

No one would dispute the cultural enrichment that such a visit affords these children, but until recently, the educational benefits of a school visit to an art museum were often unquantifiable. There was plenty of anecdotal evidence of benefit, but no empirical data to prove what those of us in cultural institutions believed was true. Recently, however, a groundbreaking study has changed all that.

Located in an area of the country where students had not previously had access to an art museum, Crystal Bridges provided an unprecedented opportunity for a controlled study on the effects of a one-time visit to an art museum on K-12 students. As schools throughout the region were clamoring to schedule visits, there were far more groups wanting to attend the museum than the museum staff could accommodate in the first year, making for a natural control group.

Recognizing this opportunity, the museum and the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions worked together on a massive study. Over the next year, the researchers would survey nearly 11,000 K-12 students & 489 teachers at 123 different schools, making this the largest study of its kind ever conducted.

The results were nothing short of game changing. As reported in a current article in the journal Education Next, researchers found that students who had taken part in a single museum field trip not only retained the information they received, they also showed significant increase in critical thinking skills, levels of tolerance and an increase in historical empathy -- the ability to understand and appreciate what life was like in different eras. These benefits were seen across the socio-economic spectrum, but the team found that those students from rural areas or disadvantaged schools, as well as minority students, showed a significantly greater positive impact.

Additionally, the study found that those students who had been to the museum as part of a school field trip were much more likely to return and bring along their families, demonstrating how a one-time museum visit can increase appreciation for art and likelihood of becoming art consumers in the future.

The implications of these findings are far-reaching and of vital importance, both to educators and to museums across the country. In times of economic hardship, cultural field trips are often among the first items cut from school budgets. With the support of such large-scale and powerful evidence, schools may be able to build a much stronger case, not only for out-of-school experiences in art museums, but for a more art-integrated cultural curriculum across all core subjects.

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Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is open Wednesday – Monday. Admission is free.